Lufenuron is the

active ingredient An active ingredient is any ingredient that provides biologically active or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or animals. ...

in the

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in non-human animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both ...

flea Flea, the common name for the order (biology), order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by hematophagy, ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult f ...

control medication program, and one of the two active ingredients in the flea, heartworm, and

anthelmintic Anthelmintics or antihelminthics are a group of antiparasitic drugs that expel parasitic worms (helminths) and other internal parasites from the body by either stunning or killing them without causing significant damage to the host. They may also ...

medicine milbemycin oxime/lufenuron (Sentinel). Lufenuron is stored in the animal's body

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...

and transferred to adult fleas through the host's blood when they feed. Adult fleas transfer it to their growing eggs through their blood, and to hatched larvae feeding on their excrement. It does not kill adult fleas. Lufenuron, a benzoylurea pesticide, inhibits the production of

chitin Chitin (carbon, C8hydrogen, H13oxygen, O5nitrogen, N)n ( ) is a long-chain polymer of N-Acetylglucosamine, ''N''-acetylglucosamine, an amide derivative of glucose. Chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature (behind only cell ...

in insects. Without chitin, a larval flea will never develop a hard outer shell (

exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the internal organs, in contrast to an internal endoskeleton (e.g. human skeleton, that ...

). With its inner organs exposed to air, the insect dies from dehydration soon after hatching or molting (shedding its old, smaller shell). Lufenuron is also used to fight

fungal A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one of the tradit ...

infections, since fungus cell walls are about one third chitin. Lufenuron is also sold as an agricultural pesticide for use against

lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

ns, eriophyid

mites Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as eac ...

, and western flower thrips. It is an effective antifungal in plants.

References

External links

* {{PPDB, 420 Veterinary drugs Insecticides Ureas Antifungals Chloroarenes Organofluorides Phenol ethers Benzamides Dog medications Fungicides Fluoroarenes Trifluoromethyl compounds